CHENNAI: A Fast Track Court (FTC) at Gobichettipalayam on Thursday acquitted R.R. Gopal, Editor of Tamil biweekly Nakheeran, and 10 others in a murder case.
FTC-II Judge Prem Kumar in his order said there was no evidence to find any of the 11 accused guilty of any offence alleged by the prosecution.
The matter relates to the suspected murder of a police informant, Kandavelu. Initially, the police registered a man-missing case in 1998. A chargesheet was also filed, but the case was subsequently closed.
Case reopened
However, in 2001, it was reopened, arraigning Mr. Gopal (7th accused) and three of his reporters — Sivasubramanian, Jeeva Thangavelu and Subbhu — as accused.
Though brigand Veerappan and his associates too were cited as accused, the case was split for trial purposes after they were killed in an encounter.
Two of the accused — Sathyamoorthy alias Sathya and Badsha Bhai — are still in prison in connection with the case.
According to the prosecution, Veerappan killed Kandavelu at the instigation of Mr. Gopal, who allegedly told the brigand that the informant's death must send a strong message to villagers in the region and deter them from passing on information to the police.
